Comcast, which signed a deal last month with streaming service Netflix, is now talking with Apple about advancing that company's long-cherished dream of entering the streaming TV business in a big way, according to sources and a published report.

The recent Comcast-Apple discussions are considered very preliminary.

Cupertino's Apple also is speaking with programming companies about acquiring additional entertainment or news content. Apple TV's current content includes free movies, TV reruns and music.

The talks' dual track suggests that Apple is getting more serious about the television business as Comcast, the nation's largest residential-Internet provider, faces regulatory reviews of its proposed $45.2 billion deal for Time Warner Cable.

A combined Comcast-Time Warner Cable could control one-third of the nation's broadband market, and its network would reach almost 60 percent of U.S. homes, Buckingham Research Group analyst James Ratcliffe said Monday.

Any loss of Comcast cable TV customers to an Apple TV service would probably be erased by higher broadband revenue at Comcast, Ratcliffe said.

Apple had previously been talking with Time Warner Cable, discussions apparently suspended during takeover speculation. Apple has periodically spoken with Comcast over the years.

The Wall Street Journal reported the talks between Comcast and Apple, which research firm SNL Kagan described Monday as the nation's largest-revenue and most profitable media company.